{"id":245,"date":"2014-01-09T20:47:24","date_gmt":"2014-01-10T02:47:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mcthrows.com\/?p=245"},"modified":"2014-01-13T07:17:54","modified_gmt":"2014-01-13T13:17:54","slug":"more-on-the-oregon-track-monopoly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mcthrows.com\/?p=245","title":{"rendered":"More on the Oregon track monopoly."},"content":{"rendered":"

First of all, thanks much for the comments.<\/p>\n

When I wrote that last post, I was sort of shooting from the hip. Just expressing my disappointment over the announcement that the next eight NCAA outdoor championships will be very difficult to attend for those of us who live beyond driving distance of Eugene.<\/p>\n

But those responses made me realize that I’d better take a step back and do a little research on the issue. First, I emailed Scott Cappos, the long time throws coach at the University of Iowa. You’d think that if anyone would want to see the NCAA meet contested\u00a0at Drake\u00a0regularly (as it has been over the past few years) it would be Scott, as Iowa City is less than a two-hour drive from Des\u00a0Moines.\u00a0\u00a0Wouldn’t any coach want his athletes to avoid the hassles of a long flight–the frequent delays, the cramped seats, the difficulty of stowing javelins securely in the overhead compartment–prior to an important\u00a0competition? \u00a0Not necessarily.<\/p>\n

“Despite the location,” Scott replied, “Oregon is the best place to experience track and field in America…National Championships suffer from poor attendance and atmosphere elsewhere.”<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
This sentiment was also expressed by Danny Block, the fine shot and discus thrower from the University of Wisconsin.\u00a0 “As an athlete, I personally love throwing at Oregon and wouldn’t mind having NCAA’s there every year. The atmosphere is electric. The discus is contested inside the track for all to see, and they treat the athletes great.”\u00a0 The only fly in the ointment? “My parents aren’t a fan of it…[they] go to almost every meet, but can never make it to Oregon because of the travel.”<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Clearly, the magic of Hayward Field is not a myth.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
And if the athletes and coaches are happy with the decision to move the championship meet to Eugene on what seems an awful lot like a permanent basis, then far be it from me to keep insisting that it’s a lousy idea.<\/div>\n
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But, I wonder about a couple of things. First, at the risk of sounding cynical, I have trouble believing that this decision was based on the wishes of the coaches and athletes. Having\u00a0attended the three recent NCAA championships held at Drake,\u00a0 and having interviewed a whole bunch of throwers and their coaches I can tell you that most of them dislike the current system of placing the athletes into two randomly selected flights for the prelims. This forces the flight-one throwers who qualify for the finals to sit around for a good 90 minutes and then to warm up again before competing against the finalists from flight two–who did not have to endure that potentially momentum-killing delay. The coaches and athletes I spoke with believed that the flights should be seeded so that the better throwers could enjoy the smoother transition from flight two into the finals.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
But I don’t see the NCAA making that change–a remarkably simple one–in an effort to please the coaches and athletes.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
So would they make the unprecedented decision to hold the meet 8 consectutive years in Eugene just to make the participants happy? And if not, what was<\/em> the basis for this decision?<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I googled around a little bit today to try to get some insight into the matter, but so far all I’ve come up with is a 2009 press release announcing that the 2011 and 2012 championships had been awarded to Drake and the 2013 and 2014 championships to Eugene.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
You can find the press release here:<\/p>\n
http:\/\/fs.ncaa.org\/Docs\/PressArchive\/2009\/Championships\/20091215%2BD1%2BOutdoor%2BTF%2BSite%2BSelect%2BRls.html
\n<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Here is a quote from it that I found rather intriguing:<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n

\u201cThe committee has worked really hard over the last several months to ensure we were awarding the championships to the best sites possible,\u201d said Holly Sheilley, chair of the Division I Men\u2019s and Women\u2019s Track and Field Committee and assistant athletic director for student development and championships at the University of Louisville.\u00a0\u201cDrake and Oregon have shown in the past they put on world-class meets, and we are confident they will do a great job hosting our future NCAA outdoor championships. The committee felt strongly about having the championships in two different sites within the four-year period to enhance the student-athlete experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, what has changed since?\u00a0 Did things go so badly at Drake in 2011 and 2012 and so well last year at Hayward that it became clear to the NCAA that Eugene should become the permanent site for the meet?<\/p>\n

I feel like the answer to that holds some interesting implications for the sport of track and field. I’m going to do some more detecting over the next few days and will report on whatever I’m able to come up with. If anyone out there has some insight into what prompted this decision, please chime in.<\/p>\n

Thanks again to those who posted comments. There is a lot more to discuss regarding the NCAA meet and the current state of track and field in this country.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First of all, thanks much for the comments. When I wrote that last post, I was sort of shooting from the hip. Just expressing my disappointment over the announcement that the next eight NCAA outdoor championships will be very difficult to attend for those of us who live beyond driving distance of Eugene. But those … Continue reading More on the Oregon track monopoly.<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-musings","category-ncaa"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8knIb-3X","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mcthrows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mcthrows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mcthrows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcthrows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcthrows.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mcthrows.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mcthrows.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcthrows.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcthrows.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}